I took an unscheduled break for a few weeks (you may have noticed). My muse had fled - due, I think to a mild depression I was experiencing. Essentially, I was pre-mourning my future health issues.  I let myself have a wallow, but a few days before Christmas, said to myself "Self, that's enough now!Time to pick up the ball."



So, since then I got creative by making some new decorations for the Christmas tree, making SIX cozies for my new tablet  (because you never know what kind of mood you'll be in); but also, actually finishing "the boy".

I know it seemed like I only had a bit to do -  (I sure thought so!) - but it turned out, that the weight of this sucker was SO. MUCH. that after I put my usual envelope closing on, the  weight of it actually pulled the seams apart. So I had to re-quilt what I thought would be only the centre portion, but as that skewed the rest of it, I actually had to re-quilt the entire thing. (Augh!)



And then I had to make the small, but painstaking "repairs" (adding more feathers, fussing with the neckline, making the bat [that bat, as innocuous as it looks, took HOURS and HOURS which I will delineate in another post]).


But on to the actual piece!

It began its life as a piece about my son, Issac, who died 19 years ago. You may remember I started it in the spring - the start date was actually on what would have been his 21st birthday. But I didn't want to make a cherub, so I aged him using my face and those of my other sons at various ages to make him an older child.



But as I worked on the wings, I realized that I was not only grieving the death of my own son, but all of our sons, who are taken from us because of the world we live in - whether its an accident, a stray bullet, a predator, or a George Zimmerman.

And so I called it "Remembrance Day"

...

All alone I didn't like the feeling
All alone I sat and cried
All alone I had to find some meaning
In the center of the pain I felt inside

All alone I came into this world
All alone I will someday die
Solid stone is just sand and water, baby
Sand and water, and a million years gone by

I will see you in the light of a thousand suns
I will hear you in the sound of the waves
I will know you when I come, as we all will come
Through the doors beyond the grave

All alone I came into this world
All alone I will someday die
Solid stone is just sand and water, baby
Sand and water and a million years gone by  ...*

I hope you enjoy your new year's eve celebrations if that's what you do - and if you take this time to reflect on the past year(s) or make plans for a new one - I hope you find much to celebrate and look forward to.

I'll see you on Wednesday with my annual "Year In Review".

'Till then!



*From Sand & Water by Beth Neilson Chapman"

 The second one in the pair, "Red Bench No. 2"

These little pieces have been very popular in our house - BSP really wanted to keep them. However, "Red Bench No. 1" has already sold.

A couple of weeks ago, someone had posted a reminder on Facebook that the "Super Moon" was coming. I made a note to get up and take pictures, because as you step onto our back porch from the mud  room, the first thing you see is the moon rising over our ivy covered fence, often, it seems, peeking out artfully through the clouds.

My first series is done!  Not that I'll never make another bird  - I'm sure I will (they're kind of addictive, actually); but this particular six by six, ten piece challenge I set myself is done. Yay!

Originally, I hadn't made a decision "I'm going to do a series"; but the show I was making them for had requested ten pieces in the six by six size.  I thought it would be fun to make them all "match" rather than have them be disparate subjects.
Continued after the jump...

Mes voila!

The really for real final bird in the series, so we end where we began, with Green Headed Tanager.